Healing All People:: The Roper St. Francis Healthcare Alliance

This is the story of two centuries-old hospitals, Roper and St. Francis. They were neighbors that supported one another, where generations of doctors treated patients from the Civil War era through the civil rights era. Then the 1980s and 1990s changed the landscape in healthcare. National healthcare conglomerates came courting in Charleston, and the two hospitals that once supported each other became rivals in a swirl of lawsuits
and distrust. Jane O'Boyle interviewed scores of doctors and hospital staff to unravel a tale that is a touchstone of twentieth century Lowcountry history. Filled with colorful personalities and anecdotes, as well as black-and-white photographs, Healing All People is the heartwarming and entertaining story of community members who went beyond the call to save a cherished tradition. Charleston doctors and staff at Roper
and St. Francis revered their mission to serve the community over profits. In order to preserve this mission, a handful of these medical professionals and sisters sought out the solution that would permit them to resolve old conflicts and build the foundation for a state-of-the-art healthcare system. In addition to a fascinating history, this story is an entertaining snapshot of Charleston in the days after Hurricane Hugo and before the onslaught of the widespread development of the 1990s.

Jane O'Boyle is the author of nearly thirty books, including About Face with Greg Brown, MD, and the fourth edition of Fodor's Compass American Guide to South Carolina. She is the former vice president of marketing for the largest division of Random House, Inc., where she worked for fifteen years. She now lives with her husband in Charleston, South Carolina.